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Sunday, February 2, 2014

VIDEO SHOWS ARIZONA POLICE SHOOTING MAN WITH HANDS OVER HIS HEAD

By
Juan Verala Luz
1 February 2014

Last week a local news station in Eloy, Arizona ran footage of
police shooting an unarmed man, Manuel Orosco Longoria, in the back
while he had his hands in the air, contradicting police claims that he
was attempting to draw a weapon.

The video was released two weeks after the shooting. On January 14th
Pinal County sheriff deputies and Eloy police officers pursued
40-year-old Manuel Orosco Longoria after he failed to pull over at a
traffic stop. A 45-minute chase ensued, eventually ending with Longoria
stepping out of the car. Police proceeded to shoot him to death as he
had his hands up.

Following the incident, Pinal County sheriff Paul Babeu claimed that
Longoria attempted to brandish a weapon after stepping out of the car.
“A deputy felt the suspect was reaching for the gun he reportedly had,”
he commented, “so he then fired two rounds from his department-issued
patrol rifle.” Subsequent revelations have shown that there was no
weapon on Longoria.

Furthermore Babeu claimed that Longoria made statements that he
wanted to die in a “suicide by cop” situation. “Sadly, he forced the
situation,” Babeu concluded.

The video, which can be viewed here,
shows the last 40 seconds of Longoria’s life. Police move in as
Longoria considers returning to his car. Beanbag rounds can be heard
being fired at him as he initially begins to move toward the car.
Longoria then turns around and puts his hands in the air, at which time
the police shoot him with two live rounds.

Longoria’s girlfriend Lynnette Casey responded to this footage by
saying, “They [official police reports] say suicide by cop. How is it he
wanted to die if his hands were up? Nobody with their hands up wants to
die.”

Local police officials have sought to justify their actions by claiming that Longoria had a “long criminal history.”

“Now all that doesn’t convict a person,” Babeu said, “but it paints a
broader picture of what type of person we’re dealing with.” Longoria’s
sister replied that he “has never been in trouble with the law before.”

Heath Rankin, the five-and-a-half year veteran Sherriff’s Deputy who
fired the fatal shots, was put on administrative leave for three days
then returned to the patrol. Investigative reporting by local news CBS 5
revealed that Rankin was involved in at least one other shooting.

The Sheriff’s office has since issued a slew of justifications for
the shooting. Spokesperson Tim Gaffney, Eloy Police sergeant Brian
Jerome and Babeu himself have all responded to the surfaced video on
January 29th with a categorical defense of the officer’s actions.

Babeu said it’s not appropriate to “separate the point of shooting”
for examination, but rather it’s necessary to “look at everything
leading up to that point. Once given the total circumstances, I think it
becomes evident to most citizens that this was a bad situation that was
forced by the suspect who wanted to be killed, I believe.”

Furthermore, transcripts unearthed by local news show that the
sheriff supervisor issued a command to deputies who shot Longoria that
they should stand down and let local police take over. “It’s getting too
dangerous…It’s inside the Eloy PD. That’s their area. If they choose to
continue, that’s fine. But we’re going to go ahead and back out at this
point.”

The fatal shooting has been largely blacked out by the national media, and has been scantly reported on by local news.

The same day as the Eley shooting, a court in Orange County,
California, acquitted two police officers in the beating to death of
Kelly Thomas, a homeless man, in Fullerton, California.Video footage showed police officers electrocuting him with tasers,
and proceeding to beat him to death with the butt of the weapon, their
boots and fists.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s leading
private prison corporation, is the main employer in Eloy. One of the
company’s facilities, Saguaro Correctional Center, contracts with the
State of Hawaii to house Hawaiian state prisoners. The institution came
under fire when a string of immigrant deaths occurred inside the prison
and were not disclosed to government officials.

Thirty-two percent of
Eloy residents live below the poverty line, and median household income
is $26,518, just half of the national average.

Because there is no national database that collects numbers on
incidents of officer-involved shootings, official statistics do not
exist. However, one independent reporter has estimated that in 2011
alone 1,146 people were shot by police officers, 607 of whom died from
their wounds.https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/ariz-f01.html

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